Saks boosts sales more than expected; shares up

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Luxury retailer Saks Inc.
SKS, +2.01%
said Tuesday that its fiscal first-quarter profit fell to $20 million, or 13 cents a share, from $32.1 million, or 18 cents, a year earlier. Sales rose to $793.2 million from $753.6 million. Comparable sales rose 5.9%, beating the 2.2% average estimate of analysts surveyed by Retail Metrics. Excluding one-time items, Saks said it would have earned 19 cents a share. Analysts, on average, estimated the company to earn 18 cents a share on sales of $772.2 million, according to FactSet. For the rest of the year, Saks projected comparable sales to rise 4% to 6%. It also guided to higher-than-expected expenses. Saks shares rose 2.2% in premarket trading.

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